An Illustrated History of Ireland from AD 400 to 1800 eBook

which has enabled them to obtain this new issue on
such favourable terms. It is with feelings of
no ordinary pleasure that I add also the names of
the Superioresses of nearly all the convents of the
order of Our Lady of Mercy and of the order of the
Presentation, to the list of our benefactors.
With the exception of, perhaps, two or three convents
of each order, they have been unanimous in their generous
efforts to assist the circulation of the Irish History,
and of all our publications; and this kindness has
been felt by us all the more deeply, because from
our own poverty, and the poverty of the district in
which we live, we have been unable to make them any
return, or to assist them even by the sale of tickets
for their bazaars. Such disinterested charity
is, indeed, rare; and the efforts made by these religious—­the
true centres of civilization in Ireland—­to
promote the education and to improve the moral and
intellectual tone of the lower and middle classes,
are beyond all praise, combined, as these efforts are,
with never-ceasing labour for the spiritual and temporal
good of the poor in their respective districts.
Nor should I omit a word for the friends across the
wide Atlantic, to whom the very name of Ireland is
so precious, and to whom Irish history is so dear.
The Most Rev. Dr. Purcell, Archbishop of Cincinnati,
has pronounced the work to be the only Irish history
worthy of the name. John Mitchel has proclaimed,
in the Irish Citizen, that a woman has accomplished
what men have failed to do; and Alderman Ternan, at
a banquet in New Fork, has uttered the same verdict,
and declares that there, at least, no other history
can compete with ours, although Moore and D’Arcy
Magee have preceded us in their efforts to promote
the knowledge of what Ireland has been, and the hope
of what Ireland may yet become.

M.F.C. St. Clare’scontent, KENMARK,
co. Kerry,
May 8th, 1868.

FOOTNOTES:

[A] The Rev. U. Burke, of St. Jarlath’s College,
Tuam, has a note on this subject, in a work which
he is at this moment passing through the press, and
which he kindly permits me to publish. He says:
“This book [the “Illustrated History of
Ireland”] ought to be in the hands of every
young student and of every young Irish maiden attending
the convent schools. Oh, for ten thousand Irish
ladies knowing the history of Ireland! How few
know anything of it! The present volume, by Sister
Francis Clare, is an atoning sacrifice for this sin
of neglect.”

I am aware that the price of the “Illustrated
History of Ireland,” even in its present form,
although it is offered at a sacrifice which no bookseller
would make, is an obstacle to its extensive use as
a school history. We purpose, however, before
long, to publish a history for the use of schools,
at a very low price, and yet of a size to admit of
sufficient expansion for the purpose. Our countrymen
must, however, remember that only a very large number
of orders can enable the work to be published as cheaply
as it should be. It would save immense trouble
and expense, if priests, managers of schools, and the
heads of colleges, would send orders for a certain
number of copies at once. If every priest, convent,
and college, ordered twelve copies for their schools,
the work could be put in hands immediately.